Thinking of Trucking in UK/EU

I am not sure about the UK but most probably you can't get both at the same tim(that is the law in Italy and should be the same in England). Anyway what i would do is: get a c class driving licence and start looking for any job to get some experience, in the meantime get the E licence for the trailer and try to get a job with the lorry. This can take years as you have to understand that no company would give an artic to a driver without experience. You have to be lucky, in my case i was driving a normal truck for a company that also had lorries and a few months after i got my E licence they needed a lorry driver and i was sent with another driver for a few days to learn. But i allready had a few years of experience with the straight truck.

 

i drove in the UK b4 moving back to the US and it is fun but is way better in the US, you make loads more money in the states than back home in england, get a job in canada as it is a lot easier to get a class 1 licence, good luck m8

 

hmm that is weird---i worked with lots of people from Uk and they said they made a lot more money than is canada--but the price of housing and goods pretty much evens it out--and in canada you generally make more than in the US
these guys found it pretty boring driving in north america ,compared to eu

 

You could have 30 years of driving experience in Europe but if you come to the USA, you'll have to go to a truck driving school to be certified. Your experience will not matter as the laws here, along with much larger semi's, trailers, weights and hours of service will be completely different from what you have in Europe.
Tractor Trailer training schools can take 3 months or longer. After you complete the school, only one of the large carriers will hire you and you will be re-trained in a classroom setting, along with another 6 months of riding with another driver for on the road training.
Remember, you'll be treated as if you had never been behind the wheel of a semi. I met a gentleman from the UK years back and he had over 30 driving a Lorrie. He had to go through everything I described here and he was grateful for it. He said that driving the semi's here in the USA are much harder to maneuver because of the size and he wasn't used to pulling 80,000 lbs., along with the laws, terminology, etc.
Good luck to you in your endeavors and I hope everything works out for you. If you want to drive in the USA, just get over here and apply to a school as your experience there will have no impact here.

 

I recommend you learn your driving skills in UK before trying it in the states. There used to be a law that you had to pass a rigid driving test before being able to go class 1 but I think they changed that due to lack of new class 1 drivers joining the industry.

Modo

 

Trucking in Europe seems much more fun than in the U.S. I have been to Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, and Holland. It's so fun to travel in Europe because of it's beautiful scenery and rich history. I wish I could truck across Europe.

 

industrial areas are the same worldwide man

 

Didn't you read my post above? lol.